There are a few reasons why I would like to see Forestmen as a new castle faction instead of elves:

1. Almost all previous Forestmen and Dark Forest sets had great designs, figures, animals, and accessories.
2. While the fantasy themes have been developed well, I feel that human factions need to be further developed in the Castle theme.
3. Forestmen sets often feature civilians
4. Forestmen sets also have vehicles (carts, wagons, boats, etc) which are very useful in building your castle world.
5. Elves have interesting structures, but Forestmen have cool hideouts with traps, secret doors, etc.
6. Forestmen need plumes.

I picked forestmen but its a very thin margin of one over the other. Forestmen are "close enough" to elves and can be imagined as such. For my Legoverse the original forestmen are considered to be a race of Half-elves; full elves having left due to a big event in history.

The flip side is that I would like to see a LEGO elf. I would be interesting to see how the sets would be designed. Potential new weapons, armor, and other accessories would be appreciated as well. LEGO is on a roll with the Crown, Skeleton, Orc, and Dwarf themes.

Either way I think we'll be happy, the hard part is waiting for them to be in stores.
-Tower

But I agree with Munch somewhat aswell. Forestmen are a great faction and sub-theme- there's no denying it, but their time has been and gone. I do love them, but given the current theme and tones of fantasy, they do seem currently perhaps out of place.

I realise we've had little (read:none) information or details on the Elves too, but ever since word started about their existence i've thought of them very much as Forestmen 2.0. In someways, I do think they might be a reinvention of the classic Forestmen theme, hopefully much like the similarities between The 1995 Royal Knights and the original Knights' Kingdom figs.

I'm with Rogue27 on this one. The fantasy part of me has been dying for elves for some time, while I loved the Robin Hood-esque Forestmen theme. If there was a way to find a happy medium, I'd love it. I think I'll vote "Other" for the reason that I'd like to see a combonation of the two factions mentioned. I'd love to see new stuff, but the roots of the Forestmen sets are a real treat. Just give me trees and sets built around it.

Chief Smithy of Brick ForgeI buy LEGO, I play with LEGO, therefore LEGO are not for children, they are for me!

While I would want some more forestmen and the sort, I really want some elves. So, Elves is what I voted for.
I hope you don't mind, but I have some Counter-Opinions.
"4. Forestmen sets also have vehicles (carts, wagons, boats, etc) which are very useful in building your castle world. "
Who's to say the elves won't get a wheeled vehicle and/or boat? A good majority of the current 'Fantasy Era' Castle sets include a vehicle of some sort.

"5. Elves have interesting structures, but Forestmen have cool hideouts with traps, secret doors, etc. "
Well, as I see them, elves are very crafty and would probably try to protect their forest, so I could see some new sort of Camoflauged outpost and Booby traps in with the new elf sets.
I mean just look at how well Lego did Indiana Jones, I'm sure they would be able to make some sort of 'trap' suitable for a forest.

"6. Forestmen need plumes. "
Our current knight helmets don't have plumes, yet it is kind of something that is expected. Lego might just release a new hat or two for the Forestmen, but no plume. With elves we might get a new hat, maybe even new hairpieces. Nothing is definite though.

In the future, a ressurection of Forestmen/Dark forest would be nice, but right now is Fantasy's time.

Woah! Hard choice. I'd love to see some of the new elements (if any) an Elven line would entail, but I'll always have a special place in my [LEGO]heart for forestmen (or even Dark-Forestmen). On the other hand, we did have a re-imagining of the forestmen theme in Dark Forest, but on a third hand (or fourth, I've lost count already) it has been a while and those sets, although not well designed IMO, did have good parts and really good figs, and it has been a while. Although, Elves would be a fantasy equivalent of Forestmen, it seems to me, and I think could easily lend itself to slight modification (purist, of course) to become just forestmen; but then why not just go for the forestmen if that's the case...
...So, you see I'm quite divided, but I think I'd very much welcome either, especially if they kept the Elves more grounded in reality than skeletons...

If I have to choose.. I'm going with Forestmen. That's not to say I'm not totally excited about the Elves, mind you.

I just want an awesome faction like that, since Crownies are really the only Human faction in the world of Castle I've had a great liking to in the past few years, I would love to see more of that.
Not only would I like to see a Human ally, but to also see a Human enemy faction would rock!

Knights against Fantasy creatures and whatnot is awesome, don't get me wrong. But I'd rather see two Human armies facing each other.

I voted for Forestmen but I'm totally open to the idea of elves. I would really like elves to be a forest based faction, though. It's an interesting concept that would both contrast and mesh with the current castle progression.